The Los Angeles Dodgers entered the Fourth of July with a chance to win their four-game series against the San Diego Padres, and they did just that.
The Dodgers now have a chance to sweep on Sunday while the Padres try to break an eight-game losing streak. In addition, L.A. also increased their National League West division lead over San Diego to 15 games.
The Padres’ loss also moved them into sole possession of third place after the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Milwaukee Brewers earlier.
Dodgers 3, Padres 0: key takeaways
Dodgers All-Stars shine
Prior to the game, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Freddie Freeman, Andy Pages and Max Muncy were selected to the National League All-Star team, joining Shohei Ohtani, who was selected during the first phase of voting.
Ohtani was out of the lineup while dealing with a right biceps injury, but the Dodgers All-Stars led them to the win over the Padres.
Yamamoto was excellent, throwing seven shutout innings while allowing just three hits and two walks. He also added 10 strikeouts, which tied his career-best and became the seventh time he’s accomplished that in his career.
Overall, the Dodgers’ offense wasn’t great, but they scored both of their runs as a result of hits from Pages and Freeman.
Pages singled in the first run of the game in the third inning after a walk from Dalton Rushing and single from Alex Freeland. Their next run came on a solo home run from Freddie Freeman to leadoff the sixth inning once Griffin Canning was out of the game.
The final run came via a single from Freeman against Mason Miller, who hit Tommy Edman with a pitch to start the eighth inning.
Dodgers end 4th of July losing streak
The Dodgers had an 8-game winning streak on Independence Day from 2014-22, but they’ve lost the last 3 years while playing at Dodger Stadium. The win has now snapped that home losing streak on the Fourth of July.
The Dodgers are now 97-86-2 in their 185 games when playing on the Fourth of July. They’re 36-31 on the holiday since moving to LA.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shared his favorite part of the holiday prior to the game.
“Playing baseball,” Roberts said. “The last 20-something, 30 years, playing baseball. It’s great to know that families are celebrating, barbecues and things like that. Obviously, we’re going to have the fireworks. I’ve seen a lot of fireworks on the Fourth. It’s great. It’s 250 years, so it’s a big one.”
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